What would you do about a sleazy buyer??


Here's a case that I ran across last week on Audiogon and which I'm still fuming about... I'm selling my Bryston 7b-st monoblock amps. Had an Email from an interested buyer which actually made an offer. Had a second person write to me that he lives only 15 minutes from my house and wants to buy them. It was a "Lawyer" that I'll call "HM" to keep his anonymity here in xxxxxx <- (moderator cut). He wanted to buy them, but wanted to Demo them first on his system. IF he liked them, he was going to buy them for the agreed price of $2900.

Being MUCH easier to sell locally, I told the firm offer that I have a local sale, and that the buyer was going to purchase them on Saturday. If for any reason that the deal fell apart, I would contact him immediately. 2 days later,
I boxed up my 2 amps at 40 lbs each, and drove over to his house.

I listened to his PSB Golds w/ Boulder 100w/channel amp which actually sounded HORRIBLE! We hooked up my amp to his speakers and it was like night and day. NO COMPARISON!!! Totally blew away the Boulder amp. Even my girlfriend could tell right away and she hates this stuff. After 1.5 hours of demo'ing my amps, I asked him if he loved them. He agreed. He said that he would absolutely LOVE to own a pair of these!

This is when he went into his sob story... Well, he said, my economic condition is terrible right now. Let me put it this way. My financial situation is that I'm a car, heading off of a cliff with a 747 crashing right into it. In other words, he would love to have them, but has NO money to be able to buy them if he wanted to!!! He is in financial peril.

So I packed up my amps and left. Came home and wrote the other buyer. Unfortunately, the other buyer had already bought another pair of 7b-st's from someone else.

so, this completely inconsiderate S.O.B. wanted to use me to demo my gear with NO ability to buy them if he could. He was just CURIOUS how they sound. He used me to haul my goods under the pretense of buying if liking, then admits to
loving, but has NO money!

Now I'm mad. I'm fuming. Is this common for people on Audiogon to be such inconsiderate self-serving louts? I wasted 2 hours of my Saturday on this P.O.S. who never had any intention of buying, BEGGED me to leave them with him
for 3 days, and made me lose another viable sale option!!

I say that we expose people like HM from Audiogon for being the sleazy underhanded scum that he is!!! It's lawyers like him who gave many lawyers their bad reputation... How can anyone be such a self-centered lowlife is frankly beyond me.
hager_charles
Dekay- funny!!! (open robe joke)
I bet there is more to this than meets the eye.Too bad we couldnt hear from the prospective buyers.Hey,you guys reading this?
Guys like the recipient of the demo wouldn't get it if they read this whole thread.Typically they have their own brand of logic.Like Mom always said,it takes all kinds.Don't anticipate being able to change this kind,anytime soon.---Yo,Marty: hind sight is always- well,-- you know. Charles----- You know,life is for learning;-- you just did --You'll be the better for it.
Sorry to get off-base but way above Mejames mentioned that he gave someone $50 for a demo of an amplifier he did not ultimately purchase. Does anyone know of any companies that purchase audio equipment just to let people pay to demo? There is a lot I would like to try in advance but do not have local access to and don't want to use new gear as a tryout.
Thanks
Onhwy61, thanks for the apology. It has been graciously accepted!

I've really enjoyed the many comments to the threads. It's been very enjoyable seeing how many people see me as the manipulative jerk in this situation when my intent was to get a survey of this very thorough learning experience. I think a few folks need to go back and reread all of the facts very carefully again. I still read resonances of misinterpretations. I think that it shows me a culture of distrust, spin, and caution pervasive among high end audio. My last sale was sooo shocked becuase I sold him an Aerial CC5 center channel and I described it as a 9/10. He told me that he was floored when he got it as he EXPECTED an 8/10 but it showed up as a 10/10!!

Am I also one of the few people that thinks it's a bit odd that I actually use my REAL name??? Exactly why do most people hide behind their internet pseudonym? To me, it adds to that bit of creating an untrusting culture. What are we all hinding from? Maybe a stretch, but who knows. I clearly have nothing to hide. I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here? Hi, my name's Charles and I'm an internet audio seller!

This has been a wonderful learning lesson to me. I too am quite passionate about my hobby. One of the best comments is that people that buy here should already know exactly what they want. There are a half dozen stores here that carry Bryston. Most of us who sell here do not do this for their PRIMARY INCOME nor is it our business, rather as a way of upgrading when we have more $$$'s in our pockets. We all need to be cautious and yet respectful of others for their time. Like Ronald Reagan said, "Trust the dealer to the fullest extent, but always cut the deck"!

Thanks for the great support from the 95% of the replies. I'm not going to be as naively willing to extend my trust, but I've also gotten a renewed faith that 95% of the folks on here are wonderful outstanding people. I was very bitter from being jerked around, but this thread has shown me that it was a "rare" instance and has restored my faith that people are generally good in the world.

I'm glad that I found Audiogon.
Charles, I too am glad you found Audiogon, and shared your story with us.

By the way, I'll bet you can't guess my real name! It's Albert Porter.